Paper Peach? and the Darkest Desire
by Logan Aura
Summary: Mario should know by now that answering a letter from Peach should prove to him that something is going to happen sooner or later. A party, a sports game, this time a festival. But now the PRINCESS turned hero must now save the world before the strongest, darkest desire- to Destroy- breaks the entire kingdom, and world. With a little help from a ragtag group of friends of course.
1. 0-0 Title Screen

_Welcome._

 _Today, I am going to tell you the story of the Warriors who faced against the Darkest Desires._

 _Long ago, long before the Mushroom Kingdom became what it was today, there was a wide variety of villages, each one being lead by one known as a Desari, their equivalent of a sage who lead each village to thrive beautifully._

 _The Desari were eternal creatures, looking just like any other creature of their race, but they were pure of heart, only wanting one thing only: Their chosen Desire. The Desire to Know, to have Courage, to Hope, and more. It was with these Pure Desires that they led their villages, and they grew prosperous_

 _However the purer a heart, the blacker they turn once they become corrupted. Each Desari seemed to steadily grow apart, from each other, from their villages, and from their Desire. Steadily, the blackness grew to the point it was almost visible and tangible, corrupting the people of the villages as well until the Darkest Desire was created from all of their corruption._

 _The Desire to Destroy._

 _And this Desire was strong enough to break apart every last village in it's wake, almost bringing about the destruction of the entire world… But each village, though the Desires that bound them together were broken and shattered… But one innocent soul, childlike and gentle, from each village held dear to the Desire they had been taught for their lives._

 _They risked their lives, darting between villages to find others like themselves, new souls touched by the desires plaguing the villages, but able to ignore the sinister desires in an effort to regain the light that once was, until a miniature army was formed. Together, the group fought against the Dark Desire that corrupted their friends, family, loved ones… And succeeded, at a cost._

 _The group sealed their energy, embodiments of Desires, into objects that they cared deeply for, and sealed the Dark Desire away deep into the core of the world, to never be seen ever more._

 _Until today._

* * *

 **Dear Mario,**

 **I hope you are well. Today is going lovely, after the past few years of turmoil, the Mushroom Kingdom and the Koopa Kingdom are going to come together during the festival coming up! The meaning behind the festival has been lost to the ages, it has become one of wellwishes and pleasing others, but I did ask for Merlon- one of the fifteen of the fortune tellers' family- to come visit the palace archives to help me learn the truth behind the festival.**

 **Please come to visit, while I trust the Koopa Kingdom... It's almost become trite how often something has thrown us into world-shattering chaos, and having you around will ease a little stress.**

 **Peach~**


	2. 0-1: A Dark Day in the Mushroom Kingdom

**I am going to be taking the "This is a game" stuff very seriously, since Paper Mario doesn't have much of a 4th wall.**

 **Loading...**

Mario sighed, sliding through the warp pipe outside of his home into the town, checking through his belongings. Hammer? Check. Boots? Check. Inventory of Mushrooms and Pow Blocks? Check. Map of the Mushroom Kingdom? Check.

Preparations for the imminent world-threatening chaos that comes every time Peach invites him to places for whatever reason that end up causing her to be captured and risking his life to save her? Which amounted to around, what, fifteen situations over the past year or two?

Check.

The plumber left the warp pipe right inside the castle for once, looking around and hopping off of it with a low "hup". Mario quickly eyed the foyer, catching sight of all of the toads decorating it with banners and multicolored

"Let's see... If memory serves, Peach's room is..." Mario quickly moved through the halls of the castle, following the carpet through the rooms and quietly speaking with the castle servants to make sure he was heading in the right direction, avoiding the prepwork for the upcoming festival, a small smile on his face as he paused in front of a large door with a toad standing in front of it with a serious demeanor. "Excuse me but-"

"Sorry, can't talk to anyone but the Princess." The toad jerked his head and his spear towards the hall on the other side of Mario.

The hero let a low sigh out. "I just wanted to quickly step into the librar-"

"Sorry, only the Princess can come in."

Mario let a low chuckle out. "If I said I was the princess in Mario's clothing, what would you say?"

The toad eyed Mario for a moment, rolling his eyes and moving closer to the handles. "That is absurd. The princess holds a unique amulet that only she and the members of the royal lineage have."

Mario gave a quick wave, "Just joking. Say hi to the wife for me, Shif T." The guard smiled and gave a quick nod, before waving to Mario.

"Oh! Wait Mario." The toad quickly pulled a pen out, beckoning Mario closer. "Here, you should probably have this. Makes it a little easier to get where you need to." He jotted a note down on a piece of paper, handing it to Mario and sending him on his way.

Mario laughed, shaking his head and going back down the hall, darting rapidly to the doors and letting a soft ' **Y** -yahoo!' as he spun on his shoe, sending himself going fast through the halls and opening the door to Peach's chamber.

"Oh Mario, thank goodness you're here! Here-" Before he knew it, Peach had grabbed him by the overalls and turned him right around "I'm going to need you to dart into town for a short bit for me, I'm still working on my introduction to the "Festival of Desire" and need to stop by the library for a moment."

"That's why you asked for me?" Peach gave a curt nod, smiling warmly to Mario.

"Yes, I needed an extra pair of hands around since the others're busy with cakes and decorations all over Toad town. You can do that for me, can't you?"

Mario patted his chest with a low laugh. "Of course Peach, what are friends for? So go into town, buy some more mushrooms, clear out a couple of enemies that had darted into town? All you need?"

Peach nodded, quickly moving her hand to send Mario off as he darted through the halls all over again.

* * *

Peach quietly smiled as she sent Mario on his way, before pulling her amulet out- a small peach star dangling within a heart and a large spherical glass ball, before pulling a parasol out from beside her and holding it over her shoulder, unopened.

She stayed there for a moment, before turning to the air with a small smile. _"Hello there! I know you're there. I've felt you watchers a few times before. Right now I'm going to meet with someone, so could you please guide me and help me out? You control me just the same as you would Mario. **Left Control** **stick** to walk, **A** button to Jump, **B** to... Parasol. It does the same essentially as Mario's hammer. I have my amulet so I can access rooms Mario can't, and you show it by pressing the **Y** button . The **X** button... I don't know what it does just yet. Hitting ' **Start** ' should bring up the menu. You can look at **Statuses** , **Items** , or my **Journal** in the tabs there." _

Once she 'felt' the understanding from the watchers, she smiled, feeling them understand and she pulled out her journal, glancing down at the page about her meeting with Merlon to "Train".

"All right... Time to practice."

Peach quickly darted towards the library, heels clacking on the tile floor and rustling the carpet as she reached the door, moving her hand to the handle.

"Ah, I'm sorry. Someone just came by attempting to be you." Shif T. gave a quick smile towards the princess, as her hand moved to her hip and she stomped her heel.

"That Mario, the joke was funny the first few times, but once Bowser caught onto it, everyone tries it." Peach quickly held her amulet up, kneeling down to show it closer.

"... All right Princess. Merlon is just inside waiting for you. And just as you wished, we cleared out a large area."

"Thank you Shif T." She quickly pecked the toad on the head to thank him and darted into the Library with a low hum, looking around and finding Merlon, the long robed mystic standing in the cleared out area. "Ah! Merlon, thank you for coming on such short notice."

He just let a low laugh out, putting his hands into his sleeves and smiling behind his hood. "It's good to see you Princess."

Peach let a low giggle, turning her parasol around in her hand. "I'm sorry, I'd ask Mario to help me out with this, but this is something I'd prefer to do on my own. Ready?"

Merlon nodded, placing a rainbow patterned book aside and turning, mustache twitching with mirth. "Let's begin."

* * *

A Lakitu descended beside Peach and Merlon nodded in their direction, turning to Peach. "All right, do you remember anything about your fight as the Shadow Queen's Body?"

Peach nodded, frowning gently. "Yes, a little bit."

Merlon smiled for a moment and gestured towards the camera. "Unlike then, when combat was put on stage, these cameras and Lakitu will help empower you with their help in combat." Merlon handed Peach a tablet-like device, and on it showed around fifty squares, a few of them lit up by images of toads and koopas watching the camera. "Now, if you look at the gamepad, you can see them. Just like back then, you can get items through, well, magic. See how that toad there has a mushroom? If you tap it, and slide it in the direction of Peach on the screen" Peach felt the 'Watcher' do just that, flinging the mushroom towards her, and once catching it felt some of her fatigue slip away. "There."

"This is wonderful, this way the people who want to help don't risk themselves... As easily as with the Shadow Queen."

"Yep, and- Oh! That's something as well. Look on the screen again." The screen showed a stone held by one of the images of a koopa. "When you see that, or any other dangerous items, you need to tap the screen and slide backwards, closing that camera off at the cost of your Audience." Peach nodded, sensing the watcher doing that and seeing the camera turn off with a shocked Koopa's expression. "Now then, moving onto actual combat-"

"I know how to do that at least. Jump onto you and bounce using the A button, and if I want to use my parasol hold the control stick to the left until the light flashes." Merlon nodded.

"Yep. Now then, let's get to the books, I have found information on the Festival of Desire that you might be interested in."

* * *

Mario rubbed at his forehead, counting the coins for a moment before grabbing the satchel of mushrooms, darting out of the building and crashing into a young Purple spotted toad with a darket tinge to his skin. "Ah. Sorry."

"..." The toad collected his books, eyeing Mario up and down before fidgeting with his glasses and opening the book back up, walking on his way.

Mario stared off towards the toad, removing his hat and scratching at his head. "That was weird..."

Turning on his heel, the hero stared, catching sight of some shadowy figure sliding towards the castle, pulling his hammer out and his eyes narrowing as he darted after them. "Hey! Wait!"

* * *

It didn't take long for Peach to flick through the books Merlon showed her, frowning. "The Festival of Desires was created to help remind those of the Mushroom Kingdom of the things that everyone wished for, so they did not fall back to the Darkest Desire... However it's been lost for so long, hasn't it?"

Merlon gave a soft nod. "Yes, the true desires that the festival celebrate have long since been forgotten, all that remains is seven, and that there will be a lineage in the villages that hold both members who want only those desires, and items that represent the people who sacrificed themselves to-"

"GWAHAHAHAHAH!"

Peach felt her hand slam against her forehead, turning to the window of the library to see Bowser hovering in his clown-howver car with a wide grin. "Oh what is it this time, Bowser, can't you see I'm busy?"

The koopa blinked, frowning softly. "Uh... Isn't this time time where you normally would say tha- OW!" Bowser's claws moved onto his head, Peach's parasol slamming straight between his horns as she huffed.

"I'm busy, a Princess has got to do what a princess has to do, I'm not going to let you ruin the Festival of Desires." Peach stood back, her parasol on her shoulder and glared at the other, who simply glared back with an annoyed noise.

"And I even had a room in my castle decorated perfectly for you." Bowser climbed into the library, moving towards one of the seats and sitting on it, the chair straining beneath the king. "And Junior wanted to see you as well, I convinced him you weren't his mama, finally, and he just wanted to see "Aunty pe-"

"No." Peach rolled her eyes and cut him off, putting her parasol away and shaking her head. "Listen, Bowser, I can't just keep being saved by Mario every time, stars even when we worked together he had to save me about fifteen times."

The koopa paused for a moment before grinned. "Can I take Mario again?"

"Ma-"

A crash sounded from outside of the library, followed by a familiar scream. Bowser crashed through the door, calling "HEY! If someone's going to beat up Mario it's going to- wait, why're you-"

Peach darted through the door herself, just in time to see Mario spin around, a shadowy hammer in his fist slamming into Bowser and sending him flying above her head, Mario's eyes bright vibrant red and his normal red outfit replaced with blacks and purples.

"Ah~ Princess Peach. Lovely to see you." Mario tossed his hammer up and down, a wide grin gleaming in the light. "I hope you don't mind, I've taken a certian Hero hostage for once instead of you." 'Mario' put his hammer on his shoulder and grinned, before darting towards her and clashing his weapon against Peach's Parasol. "But I can't have you hanging around and ruining my plan to destroy everything in the Kingdom. So... Bye Bye~"


End file.
